## *TELEGRAM

Source: PSS vol. 51

TO ALL PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES AND PROVINCIAL LAND DEPARTMENTS

The Council of People's Commissars has decided to suspend, under the conditions named below, and pending a special new directive,* the gathering of firewood by the personal labor of foresters, assistant foresters, and forest rangers, placing upon them the obligation to exert all their strength on the prevention and extinguishing of fires by means of: 1) general intensification of continuous supervision, especially in places dangerous from the fire standpoint, such as: along railways and major thoroughfares, at sites where harvested timber is stored,

* The words "pending a special new directive" and the final paragraph of the telegram are written in the hand of V. I. Lenin. Editor.

IN THE SMALL SOVNARKOM. AUGUST 1920

uncleared forest sections and peat bogs; 2) the establishment of a network of observation posts and regular patrols of the forestry; 3) urgent organization of the clearing of forest sections of logging debris, and 4) the obligatory personal participation in the extinguishing of fires. Concerning all cases of assignment to other work, such as: participation in fire extinguishing or participation in work on ditch-digging, etc., special acts must be drawn up certifying the strained work of the forest administration. Responsibility for the implementation of all the measures indicated is placed upon the foresters. The Provincial Land Departments are obligated to submit weekly to the Central Forestry Board reports on the progress of work on fire prevention and extinguishing and on the participation of the forest administration in this matter.

Without precise and detailed protocols and acts, non-fulfillment of their obligations by the foresters shall be considered criminal evasion.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin*

no later than the 13th, 1920

text, supplemented and signed by V. I. Lenin

Written in August, no earlier than the 11th -

First published in 1959 in Lenin Miscellany XXXVI

Printed according to the typewritten